03/04/2010

The UC Budget Protests

[UCLA] Students, faculty and union workers spoke at a noon rally in Bruin Plaza for the March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education.

Earlier in the morning, about 120 students assembled in Royce Quad, and about 30 were in Bruin Plaza.

Wow. 150 students out of a total enrollment of almost 40,000. I bet the suits in Murphy Hall were really shaking in their Birkenstocks.

Third-year law student Alejandra Cruz, who organized today’s protests through UC Fights Back, read a written statement on solidarity. “(The UCLA administration) wants to do what they please and get away with it. We can’t let them get away with it. If you’ve ever stood up to power and felt like you made a difference, now is the time for you,” she said.

As someone who was known to attend a protest or two herself during college, I have been struggling mightily to find some sensible arguments in the movement of students protesting budget cuts at their campuses. But while I'm sympathetic to students finding it harder to attend college, I'm not sure what they think is supposed to happen. There's no money. This is not some question of reallocating resources from bad uses to good--everything is being cut because their institutions are under serious financial duress. When administrators point this out, the students reiterate how hard it all is, as if doing so will spur the administration to shake the money tree harder until extra cash falls from the skies.

I mean, they might protest the core business model, in which so many employees are effectively unfireable, meaning that everyone else has to take a disproportionate share of the cuts. But other than that, what is all this protesting going to accomplish? Telling the administration they're unhappy? Trust me, the administration is pretty unhappy too.

And then there's this from the Bruin report:

Hugo Sarmiento, a graduate student in urban planning, addressed the need for increased diversity within the UC system. “For years, the (UC Regents) have enacted policies that deny black and latino students access to the university,” he said.

This is just absurd. The UC system was one of the first in the country to adopt affirmative action programs. Granted, Proposition 209 resulted in a decline in black and hispanic enrollment at the UC schools. Yet, the regents and virtually all administrators have consistently opposed 209. Indeed, many suspect that policies like comprehensive admission review were intended to end-run (some would say cheat) Prop 209.

Look. I'm as frustrated as an UC stakeholder with the state of affairs. It would be nice, however, if our students could put their energy to something more useful than unconstructive whining.

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[UCLA] Students, faculty and union workers spoke at a noon rally in Bruin Plaza for the March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education.

Earlier in the morning, about 120 students assembled in Royce Quad, and about 30 were in Bruin Plaza.

Wow. 150 students out of a total enrollment of almost 40,000. I bet the suits in Murphy Hall were really shaking in their Birkenstocks.

Third-year law student Alejandra Cruz, who organized today’s protests through UC Fights Back, read a written statement on solidarity. “(The UCLA administration) wants to do what they please and get away with it. We can’t let them get away with it. If you’ve ever stood up to power and felt like you made a difference, now is the time for you,” she said.